'Offended they thought this would work': Netizen receives email on unpaid ERP fees, warns of scam

If you are a driver, you may want to pay attention to the newest online scam in town.

In a Reddit post uploaded to r/singapore on Tuesday (May 26), user Stormagedd0nDarkLord shared a screenshot of what appears to be a phishing email in their inbox.

This scam appears to be targeting users who have outstanding Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) fees by impersonating OneMotoring, the Land Transport Authority (LTA)'s online platform for motoring information and digital services.

"We are writing to remind you that there is an outstanding ERP fee as associated with your vehicle. Based on our official records, this fee remains unpaid, and we kindly ask that you take a moment to review the details below," the email reads.

It stated the amount owed, case number and payment due date before directing the email recipient to click on a link to visit "the One Motoring website".

"Everything you need to resolve this issue can be found there," it claimed.

AsiaOne was unable to verify where this link leads to.

The message also informed the recipient to "disregard" the notice if "payment" had been settled, adding that the "team" is available to help the user "should they require further clarification and assistance".

The email then signs off with "One Motoring" in bold, followed by the words "Land Transport Authority" in the next line.

Based on the screenshot, the email seems to have been sent by a Dutch email address associated with Ziggo, the largest cable operator in the Netherlands. 

The display name of the account reads as "Vehicle Support Desk", and the subject of the email was labelled as an "ERP Account Status Notification".

"I'm offended they even thought this s*** would work," the Redditor said in their post. "But that's how these scams are."

However, a commenter alluded that this is not a new scam, indicating that they had received similar scams during the Covid-19 pandemic.

"OneMotoring scams have been around for a long time. I think I received a few during Covid. Funny thing was I don't even drive," user Clarenceratops said.

'People need to keep their guard up'

Speaking to AsiaOne, the user, who only wanted to be known as Bob, said he received the email at 10.43am on Tuesday morning and opened it about 40 minutes later. 

Bob, who is a manager in his 40s, said he initially panicked when he saw the email, but then remembered that he had auto top-up enabled. 

The user proceeded to open the email, where he saw "all the red flags".

"I thought I'd post about it for awareness," Bob told AsiaOne. "People need to keep their guard up. Can't trust anything these days, even more so now with AI."

Bob also claimed the address the email was sent to was not his, which could be a result of his address being bcc'd in the email.

Nonetheless, the user said he did not make a police report.

LTA messages don't contain links to OneMotoring site: Police

In April 2025, the police issued an advisory on phishing scams that impersonated OneMotoring, which resulted in the loss of at least $470,000 from 37 reported cases.

In that scam iteration, victims would receive text messages purporting to be from OneMotoring, informing them of unpaid bills. The message would contain an embedded link that redirected individuals to a phishing website that impersonated the OneMotoring platform.

Victims were prompted to key in their personal information, card details, as well as other sensitive information, and would only realise that they had been scammed after discovering unauthorised transactions on their cards.

"Messages from LTA on unpaid road tax bills do not contain payment links to the OneMotoring website or to payment portals," the police said in the notice.

It added that LTA will only send notices through SMSes that has "gov.sg" sender identification, or by e-letters in the vehicle owner's OneMotoring account accessible only via Singpass login, or letters mailed to the vehicle owner's registered address if they had opted for hardcopy notifications.

Members of the public are reminded that government officials will never ask anyone to transfer money, request bank details, transfer a call to the police, or instruct anyone to install mobile apps from unofficial app stores over email or phone.

Individuals can safeguard themselves against scams by using the ACT (Add, Check, Tell) framework, which involves installing the ScamShield app and setting up security features.

If in doubt, they may also call the 24-hour ScamShield helpline at 1799.

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daoen.wong@asiaone.com